Stargate Aurora Episode 2:Tuebor
by The Legate
Summary: When a man is murdered in the Kataran Refugee Camp it is up to Adalyx, Gun Captain of the LWS Aurora and Karyan, a formerly Ascended Alteran to find the humans that did it before they give away the camps position to the Wraith or do more damage.
1. Chapter 1

Stargate Aurora

The following is a fan fiction based on the world of Stargate, originally written by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin and expanded upon in Stargate SG1, Atlantis and Universe by Brad Wright, Johnathan Glassner and Robert C. Cooper.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last one but especially Lone-ranger1 for Beta-reading and for giving me writing tips and Proclarush Taonas for giving me support every step of the way (even before I contacted her about the it.) :)

...........................

Episode II: Tuebor.

Adalyx felt the dusty concrete, glass and bent steel creak and crack under his leather boots as he ran through puddle after puddle. His breathing got heavier and faster as he bent down and slid into the cover that he had spotted as he entered the boulevard. He kept himself close to the floor as he relaxed a little on the side of what had once been road, now pockmarked with missing chunks.

Possibly an early version of the Wraith transportation system had pulled parts of the floor up as well as the innocent people that must have been running over it at the time, or maybe some careless human had crashed there vehicle during the confusion ?

Maybe it was simply time that had done this to the ground?

It didn't really matter now.

He took off running again through the dusty dry streets of the dead city on the dead planet. Not fifty years ago Katara had been a planet rich in life; its inhabitants had mastered gate travel and were beginning to make leaps in Quantum Computer technology.

Their vehicles went about their planet on six legs instead of the more traditional wheels, their mathematics were based on base four principles and their writing was an interesting mix of runes, hieroglyphs and shapes...such a unique civilisation that had such potential.

They even had a small fleet of ships, not as massive as the failed 'first Coalition of Human Worlds' or the Lantean Classis but it was still enough to keep themselves as a known people and as a defender of several smaller, less advanced civilisations.

But now they were gone, no more than forty eight years into the Wraith War a huge Wraith fleet had dropped into low orbit and had stripped the planet bare of life...nothing was spared from the Wraiths vengeance.

He crossed the city's square and the enormity of the tragedy struck him, as it did every day that he had ran through it for the past two weeks. Flanked by two ponds that now lay dry as a bone stood a huge tarnished silver statue of Rheia, the first Lantean to make re-contact with the humans of Katara.

She stood at the heart of the city to signify the bond the two peoples shared, a similar statue of the Kataran Prime Minister Tigus stood on a small island of the coast of the main city...the water signifying the oceans of the universe.

Even he, the son of the first patrician of the House of Oliverias hung his head in reverence at the sight of this monumental show of friendship.

He continued on, past the huge silver tarnished woman with her arm outstretched into what had once been called the palaces of government. The automatic doors no longer worked but he had no trouble in using his powers to push them to the side. He walked into the room and then reclosed the huge metal and stained glass door behind him.

The main reception had been hit quite hard by incoming fire, the entire second, third and fourth floors had collapsed into it. The room was filled with rubble and it was impossible to see the floor.

Making sure that no one was near he wrapped his minds hand around the vast amount of rubble that lay about the room. Beneath the vast amounts of bent metal, broken glass and obliterated concrete lay a circular plate...a device so rare in this galaxy that it was possible to search the galaxy for five years and never find one.

Adalyx made his way to the top of the device and stood in its centre. He sighed as it activated and five small rings rose into the air. As he saw the expected white light flash all around him he felt his body transforming into energy...

...............

The rings reassembled him on the summit of a small still intact building, the Trierarchus Building to be precise. Not a hundred feet in front of him sat another officer of the Spector Milites overlooking the clearing below. The other officer had the same uniform as him but it was clear by the way he was slouched over the side it was clear as day that he originated from a different branch of the military.

"Above the sun to you, Iohannes." He said loudly as he approached the side of the building as well as the other officer, Iohannes. The officer wore a mini drone launcher over his shoulder that he would use in case of Wraith attack. The officer turned around with the launcher on his shoulder.

"Futuo! Watch where you are aiming that Sergeant!" Adalyx exclaimed to Sergeant Iohannes who simply shrugged and moved his attention back to the ground floor.

"Above the sun, Second Captain." He spoke roughly as he regained his watch over the Stargate.

"What's the status of the refugees coming in from Ai- Taris?" Adalyx interrogated his subordinate from over his shoulder. Down below the Stargate stood aloft on top of a huge pyramid made of glistening steel and crystal that was untarnished by the years of neglect.

"As you can see, Second Captain they have not arrived yet." The sergeant spoke in a sarcastic tone that was typical of the Custos soldiers. The Custos acted as Lantean ground forces during engagements, they were the Lantean soldiers that truly fought in the trenches and fought in the dirt. For all his disrespect the Sergeant deserved to be angry.

Service in the Custos was considered less glamorous than its counterpart of the Classis. A surprising fact considering that the last Supreme Commander before the High Council assumed command of the military spent most of his career in the Custos.

Suddenly both men felt the so familiar feel of energy running through the air that the lower species tended to dismiss subconsciously. Iohannes turned from the edge of the tall building to look at his commanding officer and rolled his eyes before both men turned their attention back to the Stargate, the chevrons on its front lighting up one by one to denote the imminent arrival of the refugees.

"I change that answer Second Captain, the refugees are on time for their arrival. " Sergeant Iohannes said with a grin as the first refugee stepped through the blue, water like event horizon.

"I shall go and take them to the camp. Good work soldier. I'll send someone to relieve you in two hours." Adalyx said grudgingly as he made his way to the buildings staircase...

.................

Karyan cursed as she felt the young woman's heart beat descend quickly. The blood on her hands was still wet and the white gloves that were now stained red were quickly becoming unusable. She looked at her compatriot across the side of the table who wore the same uniform that she did but his eyes were so differen...glazed and cold.

She realised that there was nothing she could do with what little equipment they had in camp. Concluding that there was only one thing she could do she quickly pulled the thin, white neoprene surgical gloves from her hands and placed them over the woman's open chest cavity.

To her colleagues' horror a white light flashed from between them and as Karyan felt the life force leave her body she could also see that it was helping her patient. First her heart began to beat again, slowly but it was still a beat and then it got faster and then the chest cavity itself closed up.

Suddenly the woman opened her brilliant green eyes and Karyan fell backwards, the stress of healing the young woman was far too much even for this ancient healer.

The human nurses stood in amazement of the natural Alteran abilities. The other physician, Sontar sighed to himself and looked around.

"Nurse, someone...get this young woman a blanket." Sontar said disappointingly as he stared at Karyan who was now sat with her back against the medical table. One of the half a dozen nurses that stood around the room, a tall dark haired woman came and draped a silver blanket over her. "Please take this woman to the wards and keep checking on her stats every thirty minutes."

Two other nurses came and set a gurney up and took it along with the woman to another area of the camp. The two Alterans stood alone in the surgical area, Karyan sitting on one side of the medical table while Sontar stood on the other side.

"So I see that Captain Villgans has corrupted you." Sontar spoke disdainfully from behind his white medical mask that covered his entire body.

"Renatus is a good man, but it has not been his influence that affected my choice." She replied as a sigh left his mouth.

"Renatus Villgans concentrates on the here and now; he never looks into the future. Much as you did just now. He and those like him always fail to see the negative consequences."

"I fail to see how saving that woman's life can have negative consequences." Karyan countered.

"How can you not? In expressing your own abilities in front of the human staff you have helped to breed the idea that our kind are in some way of the divine, we become Gods, Spirits...something to pray to. As the energy through prayer is transferred to the Ascended they slowly lose sanity and reasoning until..."

"I know Sontar, they become nothing more than the Ori." She said calmly.

"Good, you understand then. None the less, that was impressive work Karyan." He said as he left to parts of the camp unknown. She sat there, her back against the cold metal table for what felt like an eternity as she gathered her inner energy back. For even the most gifted of the Lantean race healing another was exhausting, potentially threatening depending on the disease or injury and although the human woman's medical needs were far from that severe, she still felt heavily drained.

As she finally stood up the cloister bell at the centre of the camp suddenly rang throughout the artificial cavern. She sighed as she made her way through the medical street into the main avenue...In the past the area that served as the Katara Refugee Camp was one of Katara's largest underground vehicle garage, so large in fact that it needed a fleet of smaller vehicles to ferry the owners to their own metal contraptions.

Now the vehicles had been pulled apart, used to make a huge gate that kept most vermin and wild animals out however it would prove little hinderance if the Wraith ever discovered the location of this place...

To her own discomfort the human residents of the camp bowed in reverence as she walked through to the main gate where the newest group was being checked in. She could hear several women shush some children, and a man begin a prayer. She walked with her head down in a vain attempt to draw as little attention to herself as possible until she reached the rusty metal gate.

"Karyan." Second Captain Adalyx said from behind as she saw the sheer magnitude of the crowd approaching the camp. She imagined at least forty four hundred...

"Second Captain Adalyx." She replied, the distinct hint of disdain could easily be heard in her tonality. She didn't care for the second captain in any shape or form, his views on racial superiority and the government scared her. She had been through far worse and she knew that going down the road he sought could mean the end of the Alteran race. "Do you have the information on these people?"

"Yes, three thousand eight hundred and ninety four males, two thousand two hundred and six females, all of various ages. Six thousand in total. No noticeable diseases reported on visual inspection however I still think you should still do a..."

Suddenly a great shout rang throughout the artificial cavern, so loud it was that all the other sounds of people going back and forth and the sounds of the water pipes. Adalyx gestured to the gate staff to admit the refugees while he and Karyan quickly made their way to the direction of the scream....

.....................

R'deus, the local Spector Milites commander stood over the little girl who sat across from a corpse. The old official was not what one would call a weak man, before he had enlisted in the Spector Milites he had been in the fleet, a confidante of General Hippaforalkus. He was a tall man, with thicn patches of hair and a stone, chiselled face.

It wasn't hard to see how the man had died; the knife in the skull was not indicative of any civilisation that the three officers were aware of. Adalyx and Karyan instinctively bent down to examine the man as they entered the room, while not four meters away from them the commander still stood and the girl still cried...

"What happened here?" Adalyx asked his commander.

"I don't know, I heard the scream and followed it to find the girl here crying in front of this corpse." The old man replied as Karyan reached into her left breast pocket and retrieved a medical scanning device. She ran it over the corpse's mangled skull and broken body and gasped to herself. Karyan stood up and leaned over to the Commander.

"Commander, my scanner has detected energy readings...It looks like it could be from Wraith weapons fire-"R'deus bent down and placed his hand on the little girls shoulder.

"Go find your mother." He interrupted his subordinate. "I'm sorry, what were you saying, Karyan?"

"Sir, this man appears to have been shot by a Wraith stunner before being stabbed." The little girl went running from the room.

"That's impossible, the entrance to the camp is heavily hidden, the main Wraith fleet is still laying siege to Lantea and the Stargate is guarded twenty two hours a day. The dampening field that we installed to mask the life signs is still operational. There is no way a Wraith could get inside the perimeter or even know of its existance." Adalyx broke into the conversation as he closed the dead man's eyes.

"No, you are correct. It is virtually impossible for the Wraith to get into this location according to logic." R'deus said as he stood up again. "I believe that a Wraith Worshipper may have come in with one of the refugee groups."

"Sir, I'm afraid you've caught me unaware. What are Wraith Worshippers?" Karyan softly spoke as she stood up and replaced the scanner in her pocket. R'deus sighed...

"It wasn't long after the war began that some of the humans of this galaxy began to make their own alliances...some did it because they generally worshiped the Wraith while others simply believed that in the end the Wraith would be triumphant." Karyan became physically repugnant at the idea of the humans siding with the Wraith."Some work by spreading Wraith made propaganda while others are more bold and become little more than terrorists and auxiliary troops for the Wraith."

"I've seen them before, during the battle of Procyon Alpha XI. It was about a month before you came aboard Karyan." Adalyx said as he gazed at the physician. "We were supposed to be co-ordinating a battle group made up of fleets from Tri-Exalon and Valos Alcorsateda, as well as a dozen other smaller world's galactic navies when about thirty five ships broke through the lines and began attacking their comrades."

"I read about that battle in the archive, it was an achievement worthy of the general himself that the Aurora managed to survive." R'deus said.

"It should be called the 'Massacre of Procyon Alpha XI', sir."

"...And so now we must conclude that there is at least one Wraith Worshipper on this planet." Karyan said.

"How else would the murderer have Wraith technology?" Adalyx countered.

"Yes. Second Captain, go to the stargate and inform Atlantus that we a problem and thenwait for my arrival to de-activate this planets Stargate for the time being."

"Yes sir." And with that he ran back to Sergeant Iohannes and the Stargate.

"Karyan?"

"Yes sir?"

"Gather the medical staff; I want a full autopsy done on this man. I want to know when he died and if he was dragged to this location. Then I want you to start looking around the camp for any signs of Wraith feeding on any of them. I shall be with you after I've contacted the High Council and deactivated the stargate."

"Yes, Sir."

...........

In the centre of the camp, in the centre of his tent Commander R'deus placed the small holographic array on the cold concrete floor. Suddenly a live holographic representation of High Councillor Moros appeared in his room.

"Commander R'deus, may I ask why you have decided to contact me instead of your own superiors in the Spector Milites?" Moros said solemnly.

"Yes sir, I and my staff have reason to believe that one of the Wraith's Human agents has managed to infiltrate this facility." R'deus didn't expect to see the High Council in shock, he who had made some of the toughest decisions in the history of their kind and had led them into battle...It was all too easy, even for a Lantean for their superiors to become Olympian figures.

"What evidence do you have?" Moros regained some of his composure.

"A man was murdered, not ten minutes ago by my estimates. One of the physicians' detected energy associated with Wraith Energy Weapons and as you know sir, no wraith could hope to infiltrate this facility..."

"But there is the possibility that a Human Wraith agent could..."

"Yes sir."

"What do you require? I can have the LWS Solaria in your location in three hours..." High Councillor Moros said before being interrupted by the Commander.

"No sir that might create a panic and at worse it might even bring the Wraith down on us." R'deus said slowly and cautiously.

"Do you request the assistance of an Operative?" Moros said.

"Yes sir."


	2. Chapter 2

The following is a fan fiction based on the world of Stargate, originally written by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin and expanded upon in Stargate SG1, Atlantis and Universe by Brad Wright, Johnathan Glassner and Robert C. Cooper.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last one but especially Lone-ranger1 for Beta-reading and for giving me writing tips and Proclarush Taonas for giving me support every step of the way (even before I contacted her about the it.) :)

Dedicated to Absent Friends.

.........................................................

He could have been a Lantean. He was tall enough and he wore the uniform of one of their kind (save for the black colouring) but what R'deus and Adalyx assumed to be a weapon on his right hip was so strange to them.

From this distance it looked to be about twelve inches and its silver casing glistened in the light of the pale sun. On the end of the cylinder that faced the floor Adalyx could make out a small blue crystal that reminded him of the blue crystals that normally sat upon the interstellar communication devices.

The Stargate deactivated behind 'The Operative' and he stepped down the pyramid like staircase on that it had been placed slowly. He looked at the Commander and then Adalyx could clearly see that the man dressed in black was looking at him. His head was small and round like an egg and his eyes were small and set back into his skull like those of an insect.

"Above the sun to you." Commander R'deus said calmly as the Operative joined them at the bottom of the staircase. The Operative moved his attention between the two soldiers.

"Above the sun, Commander R'deus." He replied as he took position over the Stargates dialling device. He outstretched his hand over the silvery blue crystalline device devise and like an explosion. Each crystal, piece of metal, slip of naquada...all of it was suspended in mid air for the two Military Officers to see.

The Operative pulled a small, green and red crystal from the sash that was wrapped around his body and held it in his hand. It floated away from his hand and joined its brethren in perfect formation over the hollow blue metallic shell of the dialling device.

Suddenly the pieces slipped back into place; including the crystal that the Operative had brought with him within seconds the dialling device was whole again. The seven visible chevrons (and presumably those not visible as well) locked all at once.

"There." The operative spoke with a very noticeable monotonic expression. "The stargate has been deactivated. No one can dial in or out. We are alone." The operative began to walk towards the building upon which the Stargate's sentry usually watched and where the ring device lay.

"You do know where you're going?" The Operative stopped in his tracks and turned around to face the two soldiers.

"Are you implying that the schematics for this city contained within the Atlantus archive and your own report on the geography of this city are false?" The Operative suggested, as if he was trying to poke holes in the Commander's story.

"No. They're all correct up to standard." The commander quickly countered.

"Then I know where I'm going." He spoke with condidence as long as the Archive was correct that he was infallible. The two military officers joined the Operative in the middle of the road where he stood.

"Forgive my carelessness, this is..." The Commander said before he was interrupted by the Operative.

"Second-Captain Adalyx of the Classis, Born on Lantea, in Atlantus' medical facility itself. Your father is Zeanalus, patrician of the House of Oliverias and Minister of the Interior. Your mother is Iphaeliem, molecular biologist who successfully brought the Zien-Sha fly out of extinction. That was fine work." Adalyx was taken back the sheer amount of knowledge that this man had about him and the situation. He pulled himself together

"And you, I didn't get your name or your rank." The Operative smiled and looked into the Second-Captains eyes.

"My name is of no importance to you, and for your information in your chain of command I have the equivalent rank of Admiral and as such for the time being I am in charge, Second-Captain" The Operative spoke coldly but surely, he had a cool collectiveness about him scared Adalyx. Adalyx groaned to himself silently.

"Do you have any problem with this, Second-Captain?" Commander R'deus asked under the watchful gaze of the Operative.

"So sir, It's just that I am uncomfortable being out of contact with the Stargate network."

"Don't let it trouble you, for millions of years our kind existed without the Stargates and if anything were to befall us the LWS Solaria could be here within three hours."

"Sir, Sirs...Maybe we should contact the Aurora..."

"No." The Operative spoke calmly and bluntly."Not only is the Aurora still undergoing repairs following the Battle of LX-335 in the centre of the Jager's Eye Nebula, it would also take them a day to reach us at best possible speed. Not to mention Captain Villgans' history with the council and High Councillor Moros in particular...No, we cannot allow anyone in the system that we cannot completely trust. Do you understand?"

"_But I don't trust you."_ Adalyx thought to himself as the group set off towards the building...

"Yes sir."

............

Karyan stood over the corpse, to the right of her a nurse stood in the traditional red uniform denoting that she was to assist the Lantean physician who wore a similar uniform but in white. She wasn't sure of what to do now, her training had prepared her emotionally to fight death, to help the people facing death but never had she had never learned to look into a dead man's eyes...

The nurse handed Karyan a pair of bladed scissors which she used to cut the man's shirt. In the middle of his chest he sported a large tattoo of a cross with a circle on top which humans would one day refer to as an Ankh.

Ma'am....You can't cut him open." The nurse said to which Karyan lifted her head

"Why not?"

"This man is Ank'ala. It's against his people's beliefs to do autopsies."

"As one of The Ancestors I believe that we can make an exception this time..." She pressed the scalpel into the man's chest cavity, just under his throat.

"Ma'am..." The nurse said as Karyan began to apply pressure to the mans skin.

"What is it?"

"I know that your Kind are not gods, and I don't believe that you think that either. Why do you allow my kind to believe that you are?" The nurse asked calmly.

"We allow it because we must..." And that was the end of it in Karyan's opinion.

.......................

His master had told him much of how the Lanteans had made this place habitable for their deluded followers, those who would step in the way of the progress of those that bring the Gift of Life. His master had told him to attach the bomb to this pipe because this particular pipe supplied power to the machines that blanketed theis place from those that gave the Gift of Life and that if this pipe was destroyed then the blessed ones would sweep down and bring him to them...

He pulled off the glove from his right hand and placed the wretched appendage in his mouth. He bit down hard and allowed the blood to wash over his hand, when it was completely red he placed his hand over the device that his master had instructed him to make and had given him the components and designs for.

Oh yes, his master had taught him much...

........................

Almost three thousand lay here. Separated into wards that held about 80 people in each to Karyan it seemed to be a jungle of mankind strewn about the mechanical cavern beneath the world. She had seen much destruction and misery in her long existence, but rarely did it compared to this.

There was no separation due to illness. Those who had suffered damage to their limbs lay next to those that were suffering from cancerous tumours and immune system death....Any kind of serious organisation in this place was all but impossible and she knew that many of her kind believed it to be unnecessary.

"They're only human." They'd say and Karyan would groan at their racism.

Then she saw something that she didn't expect to see in this place of misery-the woman from the past surgery and the girl from the little girl from the Ank'ala man's murder. She walked towards the pair carefully, not to wake them if either of them were asleep.

"Hello, Ancestor." The woman said softly from her bed as Karyan approached. She was barely awake; her eyes were barely open despite the fact that Karyan had personally made her well using her Alteran powers. Possibly the nurses had imagined that she needed to be sedated following surgery, no need to worry. What was done was done.

"You're awake." Karyan said quietly as she realised that the little girl on the chair next to the bed was asleep. "What is your name?"

Even in her weak state the woman smiled to herself as her face turned red.

"Meliora, Ancestor." Meliora replied.

"Please, don't call me Ancestor. My name is Karyan." Karyan said to the woman modestly. "It would be an honour if you called me that."

"Okay Karyan." Meliora said as she sat up. "Then, is it true that my daughter found a dead body before?"

"Unfortunately, Yes." Karyan simply replied with a frown upon her face. "For security reasons that's all I can say at this point." She added bitterly.

Quietness set in this ward as the tense moment lingered which seemed to last for hours.

"Counselling is available on request." Karyan finally said.

"I don't think she needs it, she's a strong kid...Even before she was born she was strong." Meliora finally broke some sort of smile again. Karyan sat down on the end side of the bed.

"Where are you from?"

"Well..." Meliora closed her eyes and smiled as if she were remembering some long lost fairy tale, a dream half remembered. "Originally our ship was from the Ziphontet Confederacy but after a long shipping trip to Omicron Dalta we found that the planet was culled by the Wraith. We couldn't find the Stargate from orbit using our sensors so we set off in hyperspace..."

"It must have taken you weeks to find a habitable world?" Karyan interrupted.

"Months." Meliora said with a smile. "Needless to say, I found a crew member that I liked and he liked me and well and then she came about." Meliora gestured to the sleeping little girl.

"Where did you land?"

"We found a planet that was on the grid and that was inhabited by humans, Watalia the natives called it. The whole crew lived there for a while. Me and my husband even brought a suburban home...Then the wraith culled Watalia and we followed every other refugee to this planet. What's its name again?"

"Katara." Karyan replied stoically. "What is your daughter's name?"

"Larrin, like her grandmother and her grandmother before her." Meliora said with a smile to which Karyan grinned.

"How long do you want that tradition to go on for?"

"Until after Atlantis rises into the Lantean sky and Tarranis is buried under volcanic dust." The patients around them turned their heads to the two women laughing while those that were not awake soon would be. Suddenly the small communicator on her collar began to bleep.

"Karyan here." She said as she stood up and pressed it into order to bring her into contact with whoever wanted her attention.

"Karyan, its Adalyx. We're back in the camp, the Stargate has been deactivated. Commander R'deus and The Operative want to speak with you in the Commanders tent as soon as possible." Adalyx replied through the subspace radio. She turned around to see that the two humans were starring at her oddly.

"Stay here." She said as she quickly left to go join her compatriots.


	3. Chapter 3

The following is a fan fiction based on the world of Stargate, originally written by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin and expanded upon in Stargate SG1, Atlantis and Universe by Brad Wright, Johnathan Glassner and Robert C. Cooper.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last one but especially Lone-ranger1 for Beta-reading and for giving me writing tips and Proclarush Taonas for giving me support every step of the way (even before I contacted her about the it.) :)

_................................_

Tents sat at both sides of Iohannes and it looked as if they were on some kind of street, a city entirely under the ground. He stared intently as he noticed a group of children playing happily in the distance. It seemed that even here, in these most difficult of circumstances there was still to be joy to have; it was the human spirit that he marvelled at.

In the corner of his eye he could see the humans giving him sideways glances as he and his fellow soldier walked through the broken remnants of more than a dozen worlds. It was only right that they should revere him and his kind after all; they had created the human race had they not? If it was not they who should be worshipped then who else?

What others are worthy of worship; false characters of fiction, their leaders, or even The Wraith?

"Fututiones vermis!" The other soldier that followed Iohannes on patrol exclaimed as a group of children came running past the two soldiers. Iohannes looked at his subordinate disapprovingly.

"Don't let me hear you using language like that in front of children again, trooper." He said sharply.

"Why the hell not?" The soldier said as he pointed his rifle into the caverns ceiling. "We risk our lives, our cities are destroyed...our ships as well and what do the humans of this galaxy do to repay us? They pledge their allegiance to the Wraith. The enemy we have been fighting for them for almost one hundred years, in their name!"

"Enough!" The Custos trooper snapped into attention (as did every other Sapien within hearing distance.) "Just as many, if not more humans have died in this war as us and if I ever hear you talking about the war effort that way again you will be making friends with my size fourteen boot. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." The trooper said grudgingly.

"I didn't _hear_ you trooper. Do you get me?" Sergeant Iohannes exclaimed in return to his subordinate's lacklustre attitude.

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Get the hell out of my sight; I'll finish this by myself." The trooper sighed in his cream and city camouflaged coloured uniform and made his way back to the barracks...

..............

The Operative, Commander R'deus and Second Captain Adalyx stood in the place where the body had been found. The Operative bent down and placed his hand on the cold, concrete, dusty floor and exhaled as the he felt the tiny hardened puddles of blood rush crumple between his fingers.

"He hadn't been dead long when the little girl found him." The Operative said to himself to Adalyx and R'deus' surprise. They had told him very little of what had occurred; they had decided to wait for Karyan to arrive onto the scene before they spoke in great detail and yet he seemed to know much. He dipped his finger into a puddle of still wet blood licked it. "Human, male...thirty two years old. He had a tattoo made with iron."

Karyan stepped into the room cautiously, weary of the strange Lantean with his finger covered in blood that he had just licked she moved to stand with her ship mate and her current commander.

"My apologies, it seems that you arrived on time with the humans normal mid day meal." She said somewhat apologetically to The Operative.

"Fear not, you made good speed from Ward twenty six." The Operative said as he stood up and wiped what was left of the blood onto his black trouser legs. "I need your report."

"Well..." Karyan began as she retrieved the small computer device that she had used to record the man's autopsy information onto. "We were right; he had been shot by a Wraith weapon before he had been stabbed in the skull."

"Yes...he saw something and then he ran." The Operative began to think out loud as he further examined the room. "The murderer then stabbed him in the skull but..."

The two military officers considered the exchange between the physician and the operative both imagined the scene that must have taken place in the room as Karyan and the Operative compared notes on the attack.

"Wait, what's this?" The Operative said as he examined the area behind a crate that had yet another streak of blood on it. To Karyan's and the officer's disgust he wiped his finger in the read slash across the floor and put his finger in his mouth.

"Human, Male...twenty seven, lower than usual iron content, slight radiation poisoning..." Suddenly The Operative spat the blood onto the floor and wiped his finger on the cold grey and dusty concrete. "High traces of Iratusin, a clear sign of what Karyan?"

"That whoever's blood this is has recently been fed on by Wraith." She replied.

"You are absolutely correct." He stood up and faced Commander R'deus and Second Captain Adalyx. "I put it to you that the blood here belongs to the murderer. We find the owner of this blood we find one of the Wraith Worshippers."

"One of the Wraith Worshippers?" Adalyx asked uneasily.

"Normally there are five, but they have been known to work in groups as small as two...but I can tell you this. There is defiantly more than one on this planet."

"Five?" Karyan asked, surprised at the idea that not one of these things had gotten into their camp but six?

"There's no proof of that. For now we must suspect five but I believe that the actual number to be closer to two." The Operative replied as he looked over the crime scene a final time. " Second Captain Adalyx...I want you to go and join the patrol teams. If you spot any human doing anything suspicious arrest them on the spot and bring them to the central tent complex. Commander R'deus, I want you to go and speak with the human representatives...make them know that we are here to protect them but we will not tolerate any Wraith Worshippers and as usual we expect them to be turned over to us." Karyan scoffed at The Operative's last order and was greeted by an unsympathetic look from his cold insect like eyes.

Karyan stood still as the two military officers left the room. Now alone with The black clad Operative she felt uneasy.

"...And what would you have me do?" She said.

"Your lack of file in the Lantean Public Archive and with only a (very short) file in the Classis Personnel Archive leads me to presume that you are not of the current Alteran generation." He said bluntly. She sighed to herself.

"That is correct; I am a former Ascended being." She replied coldly. "I retain some of the knowledge that I procured during my time but not enough to provide any real intelligence on the nature of the beings beyond this world."

"When are you from?"

"I Ascended in the Alteran year 55,462,911 Stipes Exodus and I rejoined the Alteran race on this plain of existence in the year 65,321, 001...nineteen years ago." She replied.

"Then, I can imagine that you..." She knew what he was going to say even before he did. Creatures such as the Operative always thought the same way.

"Yes, Your life was an open book to me as soon as I entered this galaxy. I know your name, your family, your homeworld...everything." She said bluntly...he was taken aback by this, it had been so long that someone he had encountered in his work had known his name.

"If you wish to avoid prosecution then I advise you to keep that information to yourself, physician." The Operative said forcibly in fear of letting that precious knowledge slip away from his grasp. He stepped closer to her and grinned. "It would be in your best interest, of course."

She smiled and looked into his hideous, horrible eyes.

"I'll take that under advisement."

...................

He walked through the crowd of those that were ignorant of those that gave life, what the Lanteans and their minions called the Wraith. In the distance he could see one of them, an Ancestor. Over the cream and brown leather armour that was typical of them he wore a long coat that made him blend into the background when he was on the top side of the city under the ground.

......................

Iohannes couldn't shake the feeling that he was being starred at as he made his way through what he imagined to be the market place. Very few of the humans of this galaxy spoke his kind's language and he spent a similar amount of energy learning their vast array of languages.

Maybe that stupid Nothus was right, maybe humans worshipping his people would be a good thing in the long run? If the humans of this galaxy spoke their prayers in Alteran maybe eventually he'd have someone to talk to on patrols besides the squad mates that he would invariably send away.

"Sergeant!" Iohannes turned around to see Second Captain Adalyx behind him wearing only the standard Classis uniform without the long, black and grey coat that he had worn on patrol before.

"My apologies Second Captain." Iohannes said as he lowered the force rifle that he had been carrying. "

"No need to apologise, I should have announced that I was coming over subspace radio before I approached." Adalyx replied as he pulled out his own weapon from his hip mounted holster.

"Not for that sir, I acted rudely before when the refugees were arriving through the Stargate. I shouldn't have."

"No you shouldn't have. But it's impossible to change the past so we'll just have to live with it." Adalyx replied. "We should continue with the patrol before something else comes up."

The two Lanteans walked through the mass of human race that now took up residence on that dead pitiful planet. They mostly walked in silence save for a few observations on the Second Evolution and the war with the Wraith. They walked through the camps many 'high streets', through the multiple wards...the tunnels around the camp and finally the area directly under the camp, the second of the four caverns that the Camp occupied.

The second level was a harsh difference from the first where the camp was situated. After the Wraith had had their fill on Katara's surface they allowed the survivors to heard themselves into this place where they were left to starve out of petty vengeance for defying the Wraith. It was a Charnel House.

At the entrance they stopped, not out of some need to prepare their bodies for the germs that theywould soon be barraged with, no they stopped out of a sign of respect to the dead.

"I hate patrols through this place...it seems wrong." Iohannes said as they looked at the vast blackness in front of them. Adalyx nodded.

"Come on, it has to be done for security. The faster we can get it done the faster we're done."

"It still feels wrong."

"I agree." Adalyx replied.

They made their way into the vast, wreckage filled cavern that was littered by not just the bones of the worlds industry but also the bones of some of its more unlucky inhabitants that had been left in there to rot by the Wraith.

........

The Operative sat in Commnader R'deus' tent, at his desk looking into his computers database. The old man didn't write much, even for a civil servant he seemed to be unimaginative. He cross checked most of the information that the Commander had put down with what little information he had submitted to the Lantean archive.

It was understandable off course, the old man hadn't taken any serious time off in forty years and the fact that his family had been culled by the Wraith surely have done something to the man...the more that the Operative thought of it the more he considered his people lucky that the worst the old commander had taken it was to become slack in his book keeping.

The Operative rubbed his eyes-it had been days since he had slept, he had only just arrived back when his superior had assigned him to yet another mission. He hadn't even had time to change before he had come here.

The woman...Karyan was a dangerous variable that he would prefer not to be here. She came from a time before the need for secrecy. He did not like her. Millions of files of information neatly packaged and formatted by the Arcanii computer systems criss-crossed his mind as he tried to recall all the information he had ever downloaded into his mind about the First Republic, the Alteran Domain in the Avalon Galaxy.

Names and dates, faces and sounds went to and fro from inside his mind...Destiny, Proclarush Taonas, Tordakara Proclarush, Vis Uban, Ascension...a thousand, tens of thousands more such titbits of knowledge swirled through his mind. Unlike the rest of the Lantean Domain those that called themselves Operatives still downloaded information directly into their minds.

The technology largely fell out of favour when his ancestors began to introduce human life to this galaxy, it was all but impossible to key it to the rare genetic marker that for reasons not yet understood, only occurred naturally in those of the first evolution of mankind, the Altera.

He stopped and rubbed his eyes again-he had gone off in a tangent as was common when reviewing data that had been uploaded into one's brain. For humans the effect was much worse, the information took hold of their subconscious mind and it re-wrote all but the most basic of functions until they perished.

It was for this reason above all others that the technology had fallen out of use with the current Alteran people, worry for the human population.

The Operative changed windows and brought another article submitted by Commander R'deus up on the old man's portable computer before suddenly he felt the vibrations of the communications button that sat on his collar. He groaned and stood up from the cold wooden desk.

"Yes." He said simply as he tapped the small device. The signal crackled and popped in the background.

"We've got something down here." Second Captain Iohannes said. "It looks like a bomb."

Immediately he made for Iohannes location, not bothering to change the devices settings so that only he could hear it. His officers needed to be prepared for what might happen.

"Stay there, I shall be there shortly." He said as he walked into the main 'street'.

.........

"This is...disturbing."

"Yes it is." Adalyx replied to the Operative as he came to the same conclusion that Adalyx did. The device was clearly of Alteran manufacture, made in the newer style of the Lantean domain. Two conduits sprouted out of the main cavity of the device which then seemed to interface with the pipe that fed the facility power from the planets core. In a sickening way the pipe itself would be the agent of its own destruction. "The explosive component seems to be modified Trinitrotoluene with an added core of Naquadah 541."

"Little bit of a bang." The Operative said.

"Yes sir, enough to completely destroy this pipe and bring the whole facility down on itself." The Operative turned his attention from the device to a small green device that Adalyx only just noticed was attached to his armband. From where he stood it consisted of a small green crystal similar to the ones that he had seen used as shield devices by some Custos units. "We can't see any kind of countdown timer so it could explode at any ti..."

"Where did you and Sergeant Iohannes imagine the explosive material to be?" The Second Captain looked puzzled but quickly regained his composure and pointed at a vague spot on the device.

"The problem is that we don't know what kind of sensors that.." Iohannes was interrupted by the Operative tappinf the green glowing crystal lightly and sliding his hand into the machine! To Sergeant Iohannes' and Second Captain Adalyxs amazement he pulled out a large clump of muddy red, clay like material. Suddenly the green crystal stopped glowing and the Operatives hand re-materialised; he dropped the clump of material on the floor and exhaled loudly.

"We've been going about this the wrong way..." The Operative said. "I'm afraid this is a worst case scenario, gentlemen we have a traitor in our midst."

Iohannes and Adalyx stood in amazement, not just at the fact that they had just seen an agent place his hand in a bomb, but also that one of their own kind could collaborate with the Wraith. Once again the Operative's attention was drawn to a strange place.

He bent down and pulled a small, bloody piece of skin that appeared to have been bitten off by human teeth...

..........

Karyan stood in the marketplace amongst the humans, old and young, male and female. If this mission had gone as hoped she should have been in the wards about now, treating patients instead of using the observational skills that only physicians seemed to have to spot a potential Wraith worshipper.

She never imagined that it would be easy rejoining her species in the physical world, but she never expected this. When she had retaken Lantean form they still had over 800 colony worlds as well as Atlantus and the shipyards over Elysia. Now almost twenty years later they had less than a dozen outposts remained and Atlantus was under siege.

Her eyes met those of hundreds of people, thousands even and she could see nothing that would indicate any of them as a potential Wraith Worshipper. She realised how easy it had been the first time she had been on this plane of existence, back before the plague had torn down all that her ancestors had thought and suffered for.

Before the second exodus there had been very few humans in their current form, most human civilisations spread throughout the twenty nine known galaxies were at a stage no higher than the most intelligent primates and even the most advanced of those were just experimenting with faster than light travel in its most primitive state of manipulating the space in front of the vessel as opposed to the more practical pushing the vessel into subspace.

Now though, humans were everywhere and her race that once numbered in the low trillions was now limited to a pitiful three million at the most. A shiver ran up her spine as the memory of being alone that last day on that still warm corpse of a planet all those many centuries ago...

Suddenly her attention was brought to a man standing not two hundred meters in front of her. He wasn't good looking, even for a human and he only had one eye...she guessed that the other must have been removed at one point. His hair was short but he ha d a noticeably black stubble. Her eyes followed his head down his right arm, to his elbow finally down to his right hand where even from here she could make out a large piece of missing skin on his hand and the triples of blood impacting the floor..." Tutela prehendo ut vir!"

Before the Lantean soldiers could respond the man had already pulled out a small Wraith stun pistol, he fired it at Karyan but luckily for her he was poor marksmen. People started to run in any direction, chaos erupted in the street as thousands of people began to stampede.

He began to run towards the direction of the settlements outermost gate and she gave chase. They followed this pattern until they got to the gate; he occasionally looked behind him to see that she was still running behind him. He shot the small organic energy pistol at her once or twice, each time she either dodged or mentally pushed the small bursts of blue energy away to impact the surrounding buildings.

Despite their naturally better reflexes the compound that was released into a humans blood stream when they were fed on by the Wraith allowed the Wraith Worshipper to knock out the Lantean guards. As she passed the metal walls and saw the Wraith worshipper make his way up the huge metal staircase she pressed the small button that sat on her collar.

"This is Karyan to all available units, suspect is fleeing to the top side. I am in persuit request immediate reinforcements and assistance, preferably someone with a gun." She said as she made her way up the cold staircase, her lungs became hoarse and she could feel the sickening feeling of acidic substances being produced throughout her body. Regardless, she kept running after him.

Katara's cold atmosphere made her lungs feel like she was stepping through deep space but still she continued on, dodging and pushing the energy pulses into the rubble. Suddenly her luck gave out, or she was too tired to mentally act or too tired to dodge; after almost a mile at blistering pace not capable for mere mortals she collapsed onto the cold concrete floor after being shot in the left kneecap.

As she fell to the floor the Wraith Worshipper continued to run for his life, he continued on for roughly another half a mile before suddenly he fell backwards. He felt a huge amount of pressure on his chest. The light began to bend in front of him to reveal the Operative standing over him.

In his right hand he held a large, shining silver pole arm with a blue crystal at the end, the end that was closest to the Wraith Worshippers skull. Suddenly the blue crystal stopped glowing and the pole arm folded into itself. Still with his foot on the worshipper the Operative bent down and picked the Wraith pistol up off the floor.

"Here's whats going to happen." The Operative said coldly. "You are going to come back with me...and then you are going to tell me everything."


	4. Chapter 4

The following is a fan fiction based on the world of Stargate, originally written by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin and expanded upon in Stargate SG1, Atlantis and Universe by Brad Wright, Johnathan Glassner and Robert C. Cooper.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last one but especially Lone-ranger1 for Beta-reading and for giving me writing tips and Proclarush Taonas for giving me support every step of the way (even before I contacted her about the it.) :)

For everyone else reading this reviews are extremely appreciated.

..........................

Surgical tubing had been used to tie the prisoner in the chair. They had pulled the long coat off him as soon as he had re-entered the facility, only to see that he had a complete set of rather large and sharp knives. In front of him stood Adalyx, who had a force pistol squarely aimed at his head, Karyan; the Lantean who he had shot in the kneecap who had a data pad in one hand and a crutch in the other and The Operative, who stood with his arms crossed like a judge passing judgement.

"DNA match is positive, he is the murderer." Karyan said with a smile as she read the report. The Operative looked at her and the edge of a grin showed.

"Do we have any other information about him?"

"Yes, there's actually a big file on him. His name's Gileset Neamor, he's from Haarkonia and he was a soldier."

"Haarkonia? Lovely world." Adalyx said.

"Oh yes, definitely...Did you ever go sledding on the volcanic islands of the South Pole?" Karyan didn't understand the interrogation that they were using but she went along with it regardless. She winced a little as the feeling returned in her left knee.

"No, I went with my father close to the start of the war. The chief minister wanted us to train several of the new regiments."

"Oh, _fantastic_ job he must have done then." The Operative said sarcastically.

"We can hardly be blamed for that mess...what was, Seven hundred? Nine hundred million people dead? " Adalyx said.

"True, the natives didn't really put up that much of a fight quite pathetic to be truthful. " They could tell that the Wraith was getting angrier as they, these _aliens_ mocked his home world.

His only reply was an insane and constant rant of rhetoric verses to which the Operative narrowed his eyes struck Gileset in the face with the side of his fist out of anger.

"I need to know how many other Wraith worshippers are in this facility! Who are they? Where are they?" He said as he wiped the blood of his fist. Karyan and Adalyx was taken aback by this, it seemed so uncivilized that the Operative was willing to lower himself to torture.

"Sir!" Karyan exclaimed.

"Would you care to step outside physician?" The Operative coldly replied.

"Sir I must protest..." Adalyx added before being interrupted by the Operative.

"Karyan, second Captain Adalyx would you please step outside while I have a pleasant conversation with mister Gileset Neamor?" He said suggestively.

Both Alterans considered what to do, and both tried to read the Wraith Worshippers mind for any idea of how far he would take it before breaking...nothing, he was simply a criss-cross of random thoughts...if he truly knew who the other Wraith worshippers were their was little chance that he'd tell the Operative before he ended up as a corpse.

"No sir. I'll be silent." Karyan said.

"I concur." Adalyx followed suit.

"Good." The Operative replied with a dark smile on his face. "Now where were we? Oh yes."

The Operative turned, and stared at the man for a few seconds mpre before striking Gileset again, this time with the back of the hand and with less force...almost as if he was slapping him...mocking him.

"What are the name of the other Wraith Worshippers?" The Operative screamed to Karyan's horror. The Wraith Worshipper simply started mumbling in the native language of his homeworld (which, none of them spoke.) to the Operatives ire. Gileset simply spat in the Operative's face.

The Operative simply grinned at the tied up Wraith worshipper, wiped his face of his spit and lifted his foot to the middle of the man's chest. He pushed and Gileset fell backwards onto the floor, the silver baton flew out from his belt and into his hand and extended itself to four times its original size. The blue crystal on the end of the staff weapon glowed brightly once again.

"Tell me all you know or you will understand how this is used." He said.

"My master will be here soon and then you will be but dust blown into the winds of history!" The Operative groaned and his staff weapon began to hum loudly.

"Wait!" Karyan said, she ran towards the two men "Who is your master?" Gileset tried to move and look around the room as she placed her hand upon Gileset's face, his teeth tried to gnaw at her hand but he found his jaw numb and unable to move to any great effect. His face was washed over with his face.

"He is an older man, one of your kind. He has much knowledge of those that give life everlasting." Karyan pulled her hand away to reveal Gileset's white, glazed over eyes and a smile on his face. Suddenly one question entered in all three of their minds at the same instant.

"Where is Commander R'deus."

...........

The dialling device was open up and spread all over the cold concrete floor. He could barely remember which crystal was the one that The Operative had added. His training had been many years ago and he couldn't remember whether he had paid much attention to the operation of the the Astria Porta in this galaxy.

Soon he would be able to communicate with the Wraith and give them the location of this place thankfully that bundler Gileset had managed to keep everyone's attention off of him and onto himself.

Suddenly he noticed it, a strange red and green crystal nestled amongst its more usual brethren. He pulled it out of its place amongst its brethren and looked at it...In many ways it looked like a smaller version of a Potentia. He threw it at the concrete floor and then stamped on the remaining pieces.

He bent down and grabbed the small portable computer device that he had taken and modified to work as a console for the dialling device, a quick way to dial without replacing everything back. He inputted the co-ordinates for a well known Wraith planet, if he was lucky they would accept his surrender and he would be allowed to live as an indentured servant but if he wasn't lucky he would be fed on again and again until he were to die, and it would be all over.

The Astria Porta's event horizon exploded in a vast blue vortex in front of him and he slowly made his way towards it. It was so inviting, cold and clean...everything that this war was not. He was about half way up the device when he heard rustling in the distance.

"Commander stop!" Second Captain Adalyx exclaimed from the bottom of the crystal and metal ramp. That imbecile Gileset had failed it appeared...The Commander simply scoffed. Suddenly the old man felt the familiar pulse of a force pistol pass close to his head (and inadvertently passing through the Astria Porta) "Sir, I beg you don't make me fire this thing at you again."

"Alright. I'll humour you." Commander R'deus stopped in his tracks. "Theirs nothing you can do either way, I've disassembled the dialling device and used a small console. The wormhole will stay active for another thirty eight minutes."

"Why did you do it? You're a Commander in the Spector Millites, you were a confidant of General Hippaforalkus...you're close friends with High Councillor Moros. Why have you betrayed us?" Adalyx said as he lowered his weapon to the floor. R'deus turned around to stare Adalyx in the eye.

"Is that truly what you believe is important? Having the ear of those men? Let me tell you something, Second Captain Adalyx of the Warship Aurora. These things mean nothing, not any more. We are a dying people and it is only by allying ourselves with the Wraith can we hope to survive for just a little longer. Hippaforalkus would have had us fight to the last man...what were his words? 'We cannot claim to be a Greater Race whilest we allow the innocent to die because of our mistakes? We must fight the Wraith until human kind no longer fears them. We will fight on all these worlds. We will fight and we will win, for we must!' Those words are madness, we never had a chance of winning this war from the moment the war began!"

"You don't know what you're saying." Adalyx replied.

"I know exactly what I'm doing! I am trading the lives of a few thousand worthless humans in exchange for my own continued existence..."

"But can't you see that in by doing this you will forever deny yourself the ability to Ascend?"

"I don't care! The Alteran species can wither and die, or fall into nothingness like dust in the wind while I'll always be here; kept alive indefinitely by the Wraith...alive...I'll always be alive!" Commander R'deus exclaimed.

"Is that what your family would have wanted? Do you think they want to be remembered as part of a dead species?" Adalyx coldly said.

"I don't care what the dead think! Do you understand that? Dead, they did not ascend. The end of their journey, their destiny! All that matters to me now is that I keep on going!" To Adalyx's horror Commander R'deus turned around to face the Astria Porta and began to walk towards the blue event horizon.

"Stop in the name of the Ascended!" Suddenly the event horizon lost cohesion without warning and disintegrated in a white light. To Commander R'deus' horror Karyan stood behind the gate with her hand on its smooth metallic Naquadah chasis. R'deus was suddenly lifted from the ground and thrown backwards through the air.

The Operative suddenly re-materialised to Karyan's right, behind the Astria Porta. He stood with his hand outstretched; he had been the one to push Commander R'deus backwards.

R'deus leaned forward up off the ground and pushed the Operative backwards, Adalyx tried to raise his firearm at the old commander but the old man deflected it back towards him. Suddenly the Operative's weapon flew from his belt into Karyan's hand...it unfolded and a as quickly as the sound of thunder a blue energy bolt erupted from the blue crystal at the end of the staff and impacted Commander R'deus' chest.

She dropped the weapon to the floor and exhaled in triumph as she realised that the old commander was still alive...whatever the Operative's weapon was designed to do, it only stunned the old Lantean.

She fell to the floor while the Operative stood up, she could feel his horrible eyes looking over her and the traitor that now lay unconscious. The staff weapon folded back in on itself again and flew into his hand as he continued to walk forwards; it flew into his hand without the Operative even turning his gaze towards it. The Operative slid it into its holster on his belt as he finally got into arms reach of the two.

"That was quick thinking physician." Karyan looked at the Operative disapprovingly, she neither wanted the praise from the likes of him nor his attention which he quickly moved to the unconscious Commander R'deus.

"Commander R'deus...you are under arrest by command of the Lantean Domain on the behalf of the Alteran species..."

............

The Astria Porta came to rest in its locking mechanism's metal claws in the Aurora's cargo bay as the artificial gravity was restored and the cargo bays outer door was erected to keep the harsh vaccum of space out. Life support was returned to the bay as the first of the chevrons lit up. At the end of the long cargo bay the large trinium doors opened and Commander Trebal walked onto the deck in her pristine uniform with two complete reports in her hands.

The event horizon erupted into life with a flash of shining blue intensity as the Astria Porta activated only to fall back in on itself within seconds. Trebal smiled as Karyan, the ships main physician and Adalyx, the ship's gun captain appeared on her side of the shining blue event horizon...one that neither of them repaid.

"Welcome back to the Lantean Classis." She said, both of them continued on walking without paying her any special attention at all. Behind them the stargate de-activated. Trebal noticed that their uniforms were ripped and dusty and dirty. Trebal could understand, during her own tenure with the Spector Millites she had to deal with a pack of rather large flying primates. She shivered at that memory.

She turned around to see that the two officers had already left...and had left her holding the status reports, much to her own ire.

..............

Adalyx sat in his dark quarters at the desk in silence. Though clean now and in proper uniform he couldn't help but shake the feeling that the experience had somehow infected him. In his mind he was at an impasse with himself...never before in his life had he heard about one of his own people helping the Wraith in such a way before...why had he done it? Why did he try to sell out his own people's future for the sake of his own mortal existence? He couldn't understand why, and he doubted that he ever would. A loud tone echoed through the dark room.

Adalyx stood up from the desk and walked over to the door in a daze and waved his hand over the blue crystal. The door opened and he was somewhat surprised to see Karyan standing there.

"Yes physician, is there something you require?" He asked as he made his way back to the desk. She wore the blue and white dress that apparently was the latest fashion with the women from Proculus, not that he knew anything of the fashions of the various worlds.

"I was just on the bridge, we received a message from Katara... apparently the Council put Sergeant Iohannes in charge after we left. " She spoke softly and smiled at him. "The Operative apparently left with Commander R'deus shortly after we did...no one knows where, he dismissed the sentry guarding the Astria Porta.

"I'm fine." He replied quickly. "I'm just..." She could tell he wasn't fine, compared to her he was a terrible liar and they both knew it.

"Go on..." She said simply

"Why did he do it? Why did he betray us all?"

"I think." She sat down on the edge of Adalyx's sleeping hammock. "Those without something to live for lose sight of what's important...After his family were lost to the Wraith the Commander simply lost grip on reality and was trying to figure out a way to go on....It's, even if it meant to live on forever. He never believed that he was worthy of Ascending, he carried too much shame and it was too hard to let go of the sorrow." She muddled through it, she wasn't completely sure of what she wanted to say and it showed.

"I guess we'll never really know."

"No...I don't suppose we shall."

"What about the Operative? He used technology and powers that were different to anything I've ever seen before...and we never even asked his name. My ascended ancestors...the commander called him to us, he could have been anyone and we didn't even know his name."

"Samael." Karyan said coldly.

"Excuse me?"

"Samael, that was his name...Samael, from Apollyon Prime...His technology was strange because it was technology that has long since been abandoned by most, saved for his own organisation." She said.

"What do you think he did with Commander R'deus?"

.................

Samael walked solemnly behind the seven Venator guardsmen and the traitor R'deus through the darkened twilight halls of the facility. He didn't like to be in this place, and he could feel the sweat building up in his black leather gloves as proof...he was just glad that his gloves were fingerless. He wondered why he found this place so malicious...maybe it was _their eyes._

Suddenly the lead Venator, a Colonel ...Atreus, yes that was his name stopped. The six other Venator's under his command followed his lead and so did the chained R'deus.

"This one sir?" He said, even through the thick armour plates and the degradation of the radio Samael could spot the man's trademark gravelly yet light voice, a voice that spoke of a generation turned to war long that was forced to grow old long before its time.

"Yes Colonel, this is as good as any." Samael replied.

Suddenly the six Venator Guardsmen raised their force rifles to R'deus' head as Colonel Atreus went to remove the former Commander's trinium enhanced hand and leg cuffs. Atreus starred into R'deus' eyes as he did so and saw nothing, no regret, no sadness...nothing. He stepped away as Samael walked forward and crossed his hand over the blue crystal that activated the stasis alcove. Grudgingly the Commander stepped into it under the harsh gaze of Atreus and his men and had one last breath of freedom as the ice engulfed him.

"You know." The Operative said with a dark smile on his face to Colonel Atreus as the ice fully covered R'deus' face. "They tell the public that there are no dreams using this technology but that's only a half truth. In there he will experience nothing but nightmares, horrors unspeakable and he will experience them unending....forever."


	5. Ships Log: Trebal

**Author**: Commander Trebal, 4362,622,433 SN.

**Date**: 32/08/65,321,020

**Title**: Ships log

**Purpose**: To provide future generations of knowledge of the current war against the Wraith.

**Thought of the Day**: Make sure the Gun Captain is on board before you test the point defence weapons.

**Proof reader**: Muergan S'renala

**Cross file**: Trebal/Documents/Ships logs/Personal logs.

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Today Hephasialas brought the ships weapon systems back online for the first time since the battle of LX 335. The drones worked perfectly with a targeting proficiency of 99.98%, which is close enough to what they were before the battle but the plasma based weaponry definitely needs to be re-calibrated before we get into another gun battle with Wraith ships...

We fired a test shot over one of the small islands on one of the planets that we passed, luckily the planet was uninhabitable to carbon based life as when we fired at the island we ended up glassing half the adjacent continent!

The Ascended know that I'll feel better when Adalyx gets back, don't get me wrong I trust everyone in his department but but still...they wouldn't know how to calibrate a plasma cannon if their collective mothers sang it to them in the womb.

In all honesty though, these repairs are only a stop gap measure until we dock at a proper dry dock facility for example Taranis. The sooner we can lay berth somewhere for longer than two weeks and get to the serious structural damage Hephasialas will stop sending complaints through the ships messaging systems.

Speaking of Adalyx, we brought in a orbital Astria Porta and he came back aboard with Karyan, they didn't say much but that's understandable, from what I've heard Katara is pretty much Abyssus on Terre at the moment. I'll make a point to speak to him tomorrow, and see if I can get some information about it from him.

In other, less important news Sergeants Veronassar and Minwarantas are expecting a baby! All of us onboard wish them the very best, from what the Security Department are telling me they've been at an item for a time now, almost four years so it was all to be expected that they'd start a family...As per regulations however they will have the child planet side either in Atlantus or in one of the remaining outposts.

Our current orders are to investigate a 'bubble' detected in sub-space which was detected three days ago when it entered the galactic plane. Judging by its trajectory we'll be able to intercept it tomorrow morning but what's really interesting is that it never leaves normal space, it's able to travel this great distance but as far as the sensors can discern it has not once entered hyperspace. Either way, tomorrow we shall be able to intercept it and find out for ourselves just what the Abyssus it is.

Signing off.

Trebal


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